Saul Goodman
Saul Goodman is a criminal defense lawyer in Albuquerque. His real name is Saul McGill, but he has changed it as he claims his clients feel more comfortable with a Jewish lawyer (“a pipe-hitting member of the tribe,” as he puts it). He is best known for his over-the-top late-night television commercials, where he advertises under the tagline “Better call Saul!” and claims "I fight for YOU, Albuquerque!" With a clientele that includes small-time drug dealers and fraudulent insurance claims, an office located in a strip mall and an obnoxious, overbearing manner, he is widely seen as a disreputable attorney by police and other lawyers. However, despite his somewhat shady appearance Saul is a highly competent lawyer, adept at sniffing out legal loopholes and able to negotiate deals on his client’s behalf. He has a strong familiarity with the drug trade and has connections to some of its most influential distributors like Gus Fring. He also employs the services of a private investigator named Mike, who performs illegal actions such as cleaning up crime scenes and bugging homes. Season 2 Following Badger's arrest for selling meth, Walt and Jesse contacted Saul for legal representation, as Jesse knew him from successfully defending Emilio twice. Walt, posing as Badger’s uncle, hired him to keep Badger out of prison. Unfortunately, while meeting Badger at the police station he caught a glimpse of Hank Schrader and Steven Gomez, and deducing they were interested in his client, made a deal with the DEA for Badger to testify against his dealer “Heisenberg.” Walt, recognizing the danger, offered Saul $10,000 to keep Badger from talking to the DEA, but Saul refused, claiming to be “morally outraged.” Walt and Jesse then went to more accelerated measures, kidnapping Saul and taking him to the desert to threaten him into keeping Badger from testifying. However, Saul quickly points out it would make more sense to kill Badger in prison, and Walt and Jesse both hesitate at this. Identifying “Mr. Mayhew” from Walt’s hacking cough, he quickly offered to be their lawyer, accepting payment of six dollars on the spot for attorney-client confidentiality. To throw the DEA off Walt and Jesse’s trail, Saul proposes the use of James Edward Kikely (aka Jimmy “In-and-Out”), a man who fits Heisenberg’s description and who is willing to go to prison for money. In exchange for $80,000 - $50,000 of which Saul takes as a finder’s fee – and a decoy pound of meth, Saul has Badger cooperate with the authorities and a sting operation leads to Jimmy’s arrest. With his private investigator figuring out who Walt is in an hour, Saul – intrigued by the DEA’s interest in Walt’s product – makes an offer to Walt to become his legal counsel, in the same vein as Tom Hagen from “The Godfather.” Walt accepts the offer, obtaining Saul’s expertise and money laundering resources in exchange for 17 percent of the proceeds . After Walt and Jesse realize they are out of their depth in becoming full-time dealers, Saul makes an offer to connect them with a major distributor in the Southwest, later revealed to be Gus Fring. A sale is negotiated for 38 pounds of meth in exchange for $1.2 million, which Saul receives 20 percent of ($240,000). Following the success of the deal, Saul sets up a way to launder the money through SaveWalterWhite.com, a website Walt Jr. has established to collect donations for his father’s cancer treatment . Later, after Jesse’s girlfriend overdoses on heroin, Saul sends Mike to clean up the scene and instruct Jesse on what to say to the authorities . Season 3 Following the success of the large sale to Gus – which leads to Saul buying better suits and a Bluetooth headset – Saul pushes Walt to take Gus’s lucrative offer to continue cooking. He also accepts a job from Jesse, using Jesse’s half of the earnings to purchase his aunt’s house at a dramatically lowered price – strongarming Jesse’s parents and attorney with a potential lawsuit over the undisclosed meth lab Jesse was running out of the basement. After Walt reveals Skyler has threatened to expose him, Saul hires Mike to bug the White house as insurance. Forced to leave early when Walt comes home, Mike witnesses the Cousins entering with an axe, and quickly places a call to Gus to call them off. Per Gus’s direction, Saul has not been informed of this threat to Walt . Mike later brings Walt to Saul after Walt creates a disturbance at Skyler’s office, and attempts to talk Walt into cooking meth again Admitting that he bugged Walt’s house and making an off-color comment about Skyler, Saul is attacked and subsequently fired by Walt. Furious, Saul shuts down the laundering of Walt’s drug money. Jesse then approaches Saul with two bags of meth he has cooked himself using Walt’s procedure, and asks to set up a deal. He meets Victor under a bridge to make the exchange, only to see he has been given half of the money – the other half went to Walt . Saul sets up an intervention between Walt and Jesse offering to give Walt a percentage of Jesse’s future deals. Walt returns Jesse’s half of the first deal, coldly informing both of them that he has now accepted Gus’s offer and will be cutting Jesse out of the business. Quickly dumping Jesse in favor of the much higher profits Walt can produce, Saul is once again hired to launder money for Walt – this time for a dramatically reduced payment of five percent . Trivia *Saul is a graduate of the University of American Samoa. *He drives a Cadillac. *His office at the strip mall is garishly decorated with wall-sized images of the US Bill of Rights, the US flag (stars and stripes), the Statue of Liberty, and fake plaster columns invoking images of stately Washington DC federal buildings. Category:Characters